Verizon Center beer goes bottoms up

The Bottom's Up beer dispenser has been all over the Internet in recent weeks, though the most memorable profile I read came in Yahoo's The Post Game. Quoting Dan Wetzel:

It "pours" a draft beer nine times faster than traditional methods and dramatically reduces spillage. It's so cool to see, it's generated viral YouTube videos and dragged fans away from the actual events to stand around and watch suds get served....

What traditionally takes a single worker concentrating on the pour -- which still produces spillage and waste to produce the proper foam head -- is now hands-free, fast and almost perfectly efficient.

Springer said stadiums that have used the system have gone from using eight beer pourers for every two cashiers to having one beer pourer for every eight cashiers. A single stand has been able to deliver 56 draft beers in one minute, an unofficial world record.

As seen above. Why can't this be an official world record.

Anyhow, how does this relate to you? Ted Leonsis noted on Wednesday that Verizon Center is now in possession of one of these little packages of genius. It'll be in use outside Section 114.

"Beer 2.0!" Leonsis calls it. But I call it Pixels of Joy and Happiness.

This is a device that looks super cool on YouTube, but has next to no advantages in actuality. "Tired of waiting in beer lines" - umm, there's hardly ever beer lines at games. Because in modern stadia there are so many stands/outlets/vendors. I never have a problem getting a beer in a matter of seconds at Verizon, FedEx or Nats Park. And if there is a delay it's down to someone waiting for food, the keg kicking or a screw-up with the register. How does pouring a beer 2 seconds faster solve that?

Also, the cups cost about 500% more than the normal ones - so the extra investment costs will probably just get passed on to the consumer. Again.

If they could invent that to pour liquor drinks quicker, then it may be really helpful. Otherwise, the primary wait is for people who pay with credit cards, food orders, and cashiers who don't move quick enough. And morons who stand in line for five minutes and then look dumbfounded when asked what they want to order.

Bring that invention to our seats, like Red Line bar, and then we can talk.

"Bring that invention to our seats, like Red Line bar, and then we can talk."

Section 104, I actually opened that bar. 40K per table probably makes that a little cost prohibited but this system is great. The cups cost more, but is saved by 10 oz of beer not being poured down the drain by untrained beer attendants.

If Aramark is tracking the cost savings expect it to be installed all over the Verizon Center soon.

"Stadium" is a Latin noun of the second declension, neuter gender. When used as either the subject of a sentence or the direct object of a verb, its plural is "stadia."

That's half an explanation, though. "Stadium" is really a loan-word from Greek: στδιον. (stadion), meaning a foot-race (and, by extension, the place where you run a race). The plural is σταδια (stadia), which was also a measure of distance in the classical world.

Now, on to beer: the bottom-pouring machine is mesmerizing. There are beer lines at sporting events, and always at the worst moments--so if this keeps things flowing nicely, so much the better.

"Stadium" is a Latin noun of the second declension, neuter gender. When used as either the subject of a sentence or the direct object of a verb, its plural is "stadia."

That's half an explanation, though. "Stadium" is really a loan-word from Greek: στδιον. (stadion), meaning a foot-race (and, by extension, the place where you run a race). The plural is σταδια (stadia), which was also a measure of distance in the classical world.

Now, on to beer: the bottom-pouring machine is mesmerizing. There are beer lines at sporting events, and always at the worst moments--so if this keeps things flowing nicely, so much the better.

Either way, beer will still cost $8 at Caps games, so I think I'll stick with the free soda you get for signing up to be the designated driver, and I'll go somewhere prior to games for beers if I so desire. Better beer for less money. Works for me.

The workers who lose their jobs are probably not to happy with this invention. How about passing on the savings to the beer drinkers.

Posted by: fish4 | February 10, 2011 7:50 AM

Meant to respond to this. The problem is that any "savings" aren't immediate because this device presumably costs more than a standard beer tap. Even if you could save on labor by having fewer people work the beer stand, you'd still have to pay for the device. In the long run it theoretically saves you money once it's paid off, but if they indeed purchase more of them, the "paid off" date takes longer and longer to arrive....

I was at the Bullets game last night and my buddy and I walked over to check this thing out. There were ZERO people trying this... ZERO! We determined that the problem is that the only beer you can purchase with this contraption is Bud Light.

Incidentally, the cups for this dispenser cost more than standard cups. It seems there is a hole in the bottom through which the beer is dispensed and it is then sealed with a magnetic device. But the user might be able to recoup some of the cost of the cups by selling advertising on the magnetic seal.

I keep picturing beer cups in the fine tradition of "Revenge of the Nerds" where eating the pie gets you a picture of Betty Childs.

It won't be a world record until America stops redefining measurements just to be different. World records would be measures in pints or litres - but a US pint is different to one in the rest of the world, for no real reason.

PS I think this machine will go as fast as the guy urinating into it - because that's what people are drinking from this thing.

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